The Writer's Soul

After a fabulous all day workshop given by Lucy Monroe this fall, I had an epiphany. Writing to sell requires a writer to follow three “P”s: Process Patience Persistence Lucy Monroe stressed over and over in her workshop to discover your process and protect it. And just as no two people are exactly alike, every […]

Success can be defined any number of ways. For the purposes of this section, let success be whatever “your” version of it is, with one caveat: you want to be able to write novels and earn enough to make a living. If you only want to get a book published simply for the sake of […]

Recently I was reading a book review where the reviewer described the heroine as TSTL. Because of this nefarious acronym, she couldn’t recommend the book. I stopped reading, puzzled. TSTL? Tempting Sultress Takes Life? Tumultuous Seductress Taming Lions? Tobacco-stained Slut Tasting Lemons? Obviously being cut from the same cloth as said heroine, it took me […]

It’s very simple: our subconscious (which is our friend and wants to help us) believes that writing is dangerous, and so it wants to stop us doing it. And because our subconscious, as the root of our creativity, is where our stories come from, it’s in a very good position to stop us writing! So, […]

Dear Barbara, I finished my first manuscript just after my first son was born and have been fielding rejection letters ever since. My game plan was to find an agent first, but that is proving difficult. Agents normally ask for more of my manuscript upon reading my query letters, but I can’t seem to get […]

It’s always a little depressing when a series or imprint closes. There are few enough markets, it seems, and to lose two more and cause even more authors to compete for the markets you’re targeting? well, it’s enough to discourage any writer intent on selling. And considering one of them actually seemed to be doing […]

Recently, the Florida lotto was $85 million dollars. Did I buy a ticket? Yep. Ten of ‘em. Did I win? Nope. But someone did – someone who bought the ticket in the same town where I bought mine. A quick pick, no less. So close, I could almost smell the leather interior of my brand […]

You’re writing the best love scene ever to sizzle off a computer screen. The artful amalgamation of words will undoubtedly dazzle editors, agents, contest judges, and then– “Mom! Maggie spit on me! I left my spelling words at school! Trooper barfed on the kitchen floor!” Talk about a proverbial bucket of cold water! Welcome to […]

Have you ever noticed how a theme will suddenly develop around you? Serendipitous events occur, snatches of speech overheard begin to form a pattern, and you think, I need to pay attention to this. Recently, I was at dinner with some dear friends. She is an English major, as am I, and she told me […]